diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index cbe989b..bd3a388 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 /_build
 *.DS_Store
 *~
+.env/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 451f985..90a71be 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,6 +13,67 @@ documentation with attribution under the terms of the Creative Commons
 Attribution Share Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA-4.0) license.
 See the [LICENCE](LICENCE) file for details.
 
+## Building the documentation locally
+
+To build a local, offline version of the documentation:
+
+* Decide where the documentation will be stored on your computer.
+* In a Terminal window, use the `cd` command to navigate to this location.
+* Create a local copy of the documentation by running:
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/artefactual/archivematica-storage-service-docs.git
+```
+
+* Move to the documentation repository with:
+
+```bash
+cd archivematica-storage-service-docs
+```
+
+* Create a Python virtual environment to contain all the required tools:
+
+```bash
+python3 -m venv .env
+```
+
+* Activate the virtual environment:
+
+```bash
+source .env/bin/activate
+```
+
+* Install the requirements:
+
+```bash
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+* Build the documentation:
+
+```bash
+sphinx-build -D language=en ./ _build/html/en # for English
+```
+
+* Access the documentation:
+
+```bash
+open _build/html/
+```
+
+The HTML files for the documentation will be in
+`archivematica-storage-service-docs/_build/html/`.
+You can open the files in a browser of your choice, without having any access
+to the Internet.
+
+While this offline version will not have the Archivematica web theme, you will
+gain access to improved search features.
+
+This local version will contain only the Archivematica Storage Service
+documentation; notably the Archivematica docs will be missing. Instructions on
+how to build a local, offline version of the Archivematica docs is available on its
+[GitHub repo](https://github.com/artefactual/archivematica-docs).
+
 ## Contributing
 
 Thank you for considering a contribution to the Archivematica Storage Service